


castles are built with stone and blood (so are we)

by Emgirl16



Series: so are we [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Incredible Hulk (2008), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Humor, Child Death, F/M, Feels, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Marriage, Mentions of Cap, Mentions of iron man, Minor Original Character(s), Unplanned Pregnancy, expect dark stuff, i changed the order of stuff around, i had to make charts to make this make sense time wise, i know nothing about the military yall my daddy would be ahsamed, im doing my best, mentions of hulk - Freeform, slightly AU, the timeline is so jacked up in the movies guys, this is the punisher
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 20:31:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20459036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emgirl16/pseuds/Emgirl16
Summary: The beginning of the Punisher.(The beginning of Lisa Castle)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first part in a very big series ya'll so hold on to your hats and tissues.

Lisa will not know this for a very long time, but she exists because of young love, young lust, and a broken condom.

“What are we going to do?” Maria cried on Frank’s shoulder.

Frank hasn’t had a real family in a long time, his old man died last winter after finally drinking himself to death and his mom’s been gone since he was ten.

God help him, Frank loves Maria and the little life inside of her even if it scares the shit out of him. So, he does the only thing he knows to do.

“Marry me.” He whispers into her hair. She stiffens.

He can tell she’s ashamed it’s happening this way, but she still whispers, “Yes.”

“It’s not just because of the, uh-”

“The baby, Frank?” She almost sounds amused underneath all the fear.

“Yes, the baby.” He takes a deep breath. “I never really thought of having kids, but if they had to be with anyone, I would want them with you.”

It’s a messy confession of his affection and really not all he wants to say, but Frank is the product of a Vietnam vet. Needless to say, he’s not good talking about his feelings.

“_Please_,” He whispers, afraid to say it too loud. “marry me.”

His words hang in the air, Frank feels like time stops just for those few moments.

“_Okay,_” Maria says. _“Okay.”_

Maybe it’s not the joyful confirmation that Frank wanted to hear, but it’s enough.

Under the circumstances, it’s more than enough.

Frank sells the guitar his father left him when he died.

He feels like he should cry, but some things can’t be helped. There’s not enough room in the shitty apartment he has for the instrument and a family. He hasn’t even touched the thing since his old man died.

Still, he remembers the feeling of watching his old man play it. He remembers a soft smile and a lightness Frank only saw when Dad looked at Mom.

His Dad was a music teacher before the war, he remembers suddenly.

It’s stupid, but he feels like he’s lost his dad for the third time when he watches someone haul it away.

Maria marries him in a small church ceremony a month after he proposed.

She’s wearing her mother’s dress, so beautiful he can’t breathe when he sees her. He ignores her stone-faced father and her mother’s sad eyes. He knows they think he’s ruined her life, that he’s doomed her to poverty and struggle, but Frank is going to do whatever it takes to take care of her.

It’s a catholic ceremony and it makes him think of his mother.

She was a gentle soul, his mother. He used to help her in the garden, pulling weeds and stones.

“Sometimes things just need a gentle touch.” She used to tell him with a smile.

As he takes Maria’s hand, he can’t help but think his mom would like her.

From day one, they work until their fingers bleed.

Frank works for a crew in construction, gets two hours of sleep, and then goes to work a night shift at the docks.

Maria works in an office during the morning, then works a shift at a 24-hour diner.

They are fucking exhausted after three months, but at least rent is paid and there’s food in the fridge.

Frank’s shift ends early one night, and he heads home so early in the morning there’s no sunlight yet. He’s looking forward to an extra hour of sleep and to be able to wish Maria a good morning before she leaves for work.

He enters their apartment and makes his way to the bedroom door when he stills.

Maria is crying.

He quickly enters the room.

“What’s wrong?” He asks, anxious. “Is it the baby?”

Maria is halfway dressed, just sitting on the bed.

“The baby’s okay.” She sobs out.

He approaches her slowly and kneels in front of her. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m just so tired.” She cries. “I’m just so fucking tired.”

Frank has a fucking revelation.

He sees, like a veil has been lifted, the circles under Maria’s eyes. He sees the paleness of her skin and the way she looks like she will shatter at any minute.

He did this to her.

“I’m gonna fix this, okay?” He manages to breathe out. “You lie back down, I’m going to call your jobs.”

“But what about-” she protests.

“Don’t worry about the bills, I’ll take care of it.” He interrupts her.

Frank comes back and lies down beside her. She rolls over and tucks herself under his chin.

“It’s gonna be okay, Sweetheart.” He kisses her forehead.

That evening Frank goes to the nearest recruitment station and joins the Marines.

He feels something like fate settling on his shoulders.

Maria cries when he tells her.

“It’s alright, Sweetheart.” He soothes her. “Everything’s gonna be fine.”

He goes to basic for twelve weeks of Hell.

He powers through with phone calls and pictures of ultrasounds.

“Look at my baby girl!” He calls to the boys around him. They all clap him on the back with cheers and bright smiles on their faces.

Frank will think back on that moment years later and ache at how young they were.

Too young for what was coming.

They have a ten-day leave before he’s supposed to report SOI.

Maria lies in his arms resting peacefully. She’s due any second and the thought makes it hard for Frank to sleep.

“What’s got you thinking so hard over there, Soldier Boy.” He startles, he hadn’t noticed her waking up.

“I’ve got a lot on my mind.” He admits. “Worried.”

“About being a dad?” She questions, a knowing look in her eyes.

“Yeah.” He responds, his brow furrows. “What if I drop her?”

The question is a very serious one and he doesn’t appreciate the laughter that escapes from her mouth.

“You’re gonna be just fine, Frank.” She smiles up at him. “I promise.”

All of a sudden, a feeling of wetness spreads throughout their sheets.

“Did you just-” His eyes widen.

“Yep.” Her eyes meet his.

He scrambles out of bed and rushes for the duffle bag kept by the door. He rushes to find his car keys and wallet.

“Frank,” Maria calls for him.

“Where did I put those damn things?” He mumbles.

“Frank.” She tries again.

“Wallet, wallet, wallet.” He opens a drawer. “Ah-ha!”

“Frank!” She shouts.

He stumbles to a stop.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” She raises an eyebrow.

He looks at her like she just spoke in tongues.

“Pants, Frank.” She sighs with a smile. “You need pants.”

He looks down and sees he’s still in his boxer shorts. “Probably a good idea.”

13 hours later, Lisa Barbara Castle is born at 8 lbs. and 11 oz.

She’s the most beautiful thing Frank has ever seen.

It’s March 10th, 2001 and a beautiful spring day.

Four months after Frank leaves Infantry school, Maria turns on her tv.

“What?” She gasps.

She looks out the window.

She is nowhere near the tower, but she can see the smoke.

She watches as one of them crumbles down on the tv screen and she clutches Lisa to her chest. Lisa starts to cry as Maria does her best to soothe her.

Her phone rings.

“We’re fine Frank, I promise.” A tear rolls down her cheek.

“_All of those people_.” She whispers. “_What’s gonna happen?”_

It is Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

Frank is shipped out to war not too long after.

The first time Frank kills a man is…it isn’t easy, but it’s acceptable.

There’s a need for violence that’s been living in his veins for as long as he can remember, he thrives in war.

Every man in his platoon knows that if Frank Castle is watching your back, then you’ll live to see another day.

A few paychecks are enough to move the Castle’s from a shitty apartment to a modest-sized house. It’s the kinda house that Maria grew up in, the kinda house she’s always wanted for her kids.

“Look around, Baby Girl,” She smiles brightly at Lisa. “We’re home.”

Moving is a little complicated at first, but a phone call and a promise of pizza and beer brings a few of her cousins and their friends over to move in the new furniture.

When the day ends there are still boxes everywhere, but it’s stuff Maria can unpack on her own.

She puts Lisa asleep in her new nursery, an actual nursery, and goes to sleep in a t-shirt that still smells like Frank.

Except she doesn’t sleep.

It’s been a mere year and a half since she was still sleeping alone in her own apartment, but at the moment it feels like forever.

“This is fucking ridiculous.” She mutters.

She lies still for a moment.

“I am a grown woman.”

She waits a second.

She sighs and gets out of bed. She pads down the hall and gently lifts Lisa out of her crib.

Only when Lisa is settled against her in the bed, does she manage to sleep.

The next day is Sunday and even though it’s not really convenient anymore, she gets up early enough to get to mass in the same church she’s been going to since she was a little girl.

Her mother holds Lisa during the service, eager to spend all the time she can with her first grandchild.

“Why don’t you have dinner at our house tonight?” Her father asks quietly, attempting to hide his eagerness. He, too, was under Lisa’s spell.

“I don’t know, Dad…” Maria drawls out. She can’t lie, she’s tempted.

“Come on, Kiddo. You can spend more time with the family now that you don’t have to work so much.” Her father responds.

There’s a hint of approval in his eyes now, even a hint of respect. It almost makes Maria want to lash out when she thinks of how her dad never thought she and Frank could last this long. They had fought terribly about it since she announced her pregnancy/up-coming marriage.

She takes a calming breath. “Alright, dad. I have been neglecting you and mom.”

Her father smiles bright and bumps her shoulder.

Maria smiles gently back, accepting his peace offering.

Maria writes to Frank once a week. She was tempted to do so every day, desperate to fill him in on every part of the time he was missing but reality had set in.

Instead, she keeps a constant growing stack of paper that she signs and sends off every Friday. She always includes a new picture of Lisa, knowing how hungry he was to hear about her.

She gets letters back. They’re not as frequent, understandable so, but Maria clutches to them. They’re little bits of Frank. They hold his dry humor, his commentary, and loving words she knows he’d never be able to speak aloud.

She knows she married the right man every time she reads, “_Dear Sweetheart_”.

Lisa looks so much like Frank it irritates her sometimes.

“It’s like I didn’t put anything at all into you.” She touches Lisa’s nose just to watch her giggle.

Her smile is a carbon copy of Frank’s, down to his dimples.

“Honestly, it’s not fair.” Her complaint comes out more like a coo.

Damn that man and his adorable kids.

Frank finishes his tour and comes back to a toddler.

Lisa cries when he first holds her again and it breaks his heart.

“Don’t cry, Baby Girl, it’s just Daddy.” He tells her gently.

She stops crying and peers into his face.

She smiles widely at him and gives a little laugh.

It’s beautiful.

He doesn’t even know he’s crying himself until a drop hits Lisa’s forehead.

Maria tucks herself under his arms and for a moment Frank Castle feels at peace.

Lisa takes her first steps toward him.

A wise man might call that a prophecy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ya'll let me know about any typos or mistakes so I can fix them please

Lisa is five when her brother is born.

Frank Jr is instantly the apple of her family’s eyes and for a while she is jealous.

Mommy has less time for her now because she is working full-time and taking care of a new baby, her grandparents want to coo over him all the time, and Daddy cut their usual talking time so he could “talk to the baby”.

Lisa was confused, the baby couldn’t even talk or play. All he seemed to do was cry and sleep.

Lisa asked Mommy if the baby was broken and if they could have another one.

She didn’t understand why her question made Mommy laugh so hard.

Lisa likes to tell Frankie stories of their daddy. She tells him about how he can play the guitar, throw her really high in the air, and how he always lets her sneak extra dessert.

Sometimes Frankie doesn’t believe her, so she tells him that he’s stupid and it always makes him cries.

Mommy puts her in time out, but she refuses to say why she insults him.

One day when Frankie is three and Daddy is almost through his latest tour, Lisa gets out of school early.

Mommy won’t say why, but Lisa catches her watching the news.

**Monsters Wreck Harlem!**

There are grainy videos of two big things crashing through buildings and cars.

Lisa doesn’t sleep so good that night.

She wishes her daddy was there.

Daddy’s homecoming is delayed when Tony Stark goes missing.

Lisa knows Tony Stark is really smart and rich, and her Aunt Sylvia says he’s really handsome.

She still feels a burning bitterness that he’s keeping her daddy from coming home.

Frank comes home while most of the world is watching Tony Stark announce the end of Stark Industries’ weapon making.

Frank misses it because he is trying to get his son to stop crying when he holds him for the first time.

Frankie doesn’t know who he is, and it hurts just as much as when Lisa did the same.

Frank teaches Lisa how to play the guitar and starts playing catch with Frankie.

The gaps between him and them no longer feel so big.

The whole “I am Iron Man” announcement plays on tv for weeks after it happens.

“Does this mean superheroes are real now, Daddy?” Lisa asks Frank, enraptured by the screen.

“Have I never told you about Captain America?” Frank grins.

“The cartoon?” She wrinkles her nose.

“The guy behind the cartoon, Baby.” He laughs.

At her head shake, he turns off the tv. “It all started in the ’40s when a little guy named Steve fought bullies in the alleyways of Brooklyn.”

Daddy goes back to war, but at least Frankie quits saying Lisa is making up stories about him.

Lisa gets in a fight with a boy on the playground.

His name is Tommy and he won’t leave Lisa alone. He’s constantly pulling her hair and pushing her down.

Lisa lets it go usually because Mommy says violence is bad.

But today is different.

“Lisa doesn’t have a dad!” Tommy shouts across the playground.

“Isn’t he a soldier?” Benji asks, confused.

“I bet she’s just making that up!” Tommy scoffs.

“I do too have a dad!” Lisa yells back, furious. It’s a feeling she will grow familiar with.

“Do not!”

“Do too!”

“Do not!”

“Do too!”

“I bet you’ve never even met him!” Tommy spits.

Lisa rears back just like her dad taught and punches Tommy straight in the face.

Lisa doesn’t tell anybody why she did it until her mother gets there.

With each detail she recounts, Maria grows angrier and angrier.

“Why hasn’t the administrator done anything about this behavior before?!” She erupts.

“It’s just kid stuff, Mrs. Castle.” The principal tries to calm her. “We didn’t believe it was anything serious.”

“You are lucky my husband is in the middle of Afghanistan right now, Mr. Murphy, you really are.” Maria seethes. “I will be transferring Lisa out of here as soon as possible!”

Lisa likes her new school, an artsy one for creative kids, way better.

Daddy comes home again when Lisa is 11 and Frankie is six.

He brings Billy Russo with him.

The Castle family find Billy to be a charming man. He’s also funny and a little bit sad.

They welcome him into their fold like he’s always been there.

“If you were an orphan, how do you know you were named after Billy the Kid?” Lisa asks, peering up at the man.

“Atta girl! Well done.” Frank grins at her.

“Lisa, you are way too smart to be your dad’s kid,” Billy smirks.

Lisa doesn’t see, but Frank playfully flips him off.

Frank takes them to see the Statue of Liberty.

Lisa finds her beautiful and tells Frank so.

“I read at school that she represents everything good about America.” She tells him, her warms eyes meeting his.

“That’s about right.” He smiles.

_“Is that why you have to go and fight?”_

His smile becomes slightly strained and the happiness in his eyes dims.

Her dad leaves for his third tour the next day.

It’s a quiet day when the world changes forever.

Lisa is at school, learning truly dreary things about math when an announcement over the intercom leads to all the kids sitting in the gym.

Someone happens to check their phone and yells out, “Check out the livestream of CNN! We’re being attacked!”

A roar begins as kids and teachers alike pull up their phones.

_“Is that?”_ A boy beside her whispers.

_“It’s fucking aliens, Dude!”_ Another boy answers.

_“Holy shit, that’s Captain America!”_ A girl calls out.

_“What the hell is Iron Man doing?”_

“He’s sending a nuke into outer space.” Lisa finds herself responding, mostly to herself.

_“The portal’s closing!”_

_“But he’s not out yet!”_

The crowd rallies behind Tony Stark.

_“Come on, Iron Man!”_ They yell out. _“Come on!”_

“Come on, Mr. Stark,” Lisa whispers.

The portals almost closed when they see a tiny speck speeding toward the ground.

_“It’s Tony Stark!”_ They cheer.

_“But he’s still falling?”_ Somebody questions.

The green thing jumps up and catches him, much to the room’s relief.

There’s a brief moment where CNN can’t tell whether or not Tony Stark is alive until the green thing roars and he pops up, attempting to catch his breath.

The room, the city, the country is quiet for a moment.

Then a roar of joy erupts that can be heard around the world.

Iron Man and The Hulk merchandise sell across the country, but nowhere more than New York.

“Are you okay?” Frank asks when he finally can get a call through. He’d been marching through the fucking desert for three days.

“Yeah,” Maria whispers. “The fighting didn’t get this far out.”

They are silent for a moment.

“I wish you were here.” She whispers, tears leaking into her voice.

“Me too.” Frank isn’t crying, but it’s the closest he’s come to it in years.

Another quiet moment passes.

_“This is my last one, Sweetheart.”_ He clears his throat. “After this one, I’m coming home to you.”

Lisa’s not the same girl she was when her dad comes home, not really.

She’s too old for plastic dinosaurs and bedtime stories and too big to be thrown in the air.

This, understandably, causes some awkwardness.

The first two days they don’t say a word to each other, simply exchanging awkward smiles. Maria and Frankie roll their eyes so much that Frank begins to joke their eyes are going to roll out of their heads.

_“They are too much alike.”_ Maria sighs to God.

Frank decides to go the range one day while Maria takes Junior to a doctor’s appointment. Lisa tags along with an interested gleam in her eyes.

“What’s the first rule?” Frank coaches her.

“Never point a gun at anybody I don’t intend to shoot.” She recites dutifully.

Maria is not pleased when she finds out.

“You let our daughter shoot a gun, Frank?” She yells at him in their bedroom that night. _“Are you crazy?”_

He interrupts her lecture with a calm, knowing look in his eyes. “She’s like me, Maria.”

_“What?”_ Maria cocks an eyebrow.

“She’s got that itch in her skin, that fire.” He meets her eyes with the face of a man meeting the gallows. “She’s gonna end up on a battlefield.”

Frank sleeps on the couch that night while Maria cries herself to sleep.

She doesn’t stop him from taking her back to the range.

The end of this happy chapter comes without warning, as most endings do.

There is nothing particularly special about that April 4th.

It’s a Saturday, so Lisa doesn’t have to listen to Ms. Harris drone on about themes in the book they’re reading. They're going out to spend the day as a family. The skies were calm and blue, the birds were singing.

It was supposed to be a normal day.

“You’ll miss that kind of stuff when you’ve got an essay due every week next year.” Maria grins as she packs their sandwiches.

“Just think, _my little baby_ is gonna be a Freshman next year.” Frank says as he comes into the room. He throws an arm over her shoulder. “She’s growing up, Maria.” He smiles. “It feels like yesterday I had to talk you out of wearing leopard tights with that pink dress to church.”

“None of you understand fashion.” Lisa sniffs as Maria and Frank laugh.

They meet Billy at the park, both kids almost miss him with their eagerness to ride the carousel.

“You aren’t _too old_ for the merry-go-round?” Frankie teases her.

“Nobody’s _too old_ for carousels.” Lisa scoffs.

“That’s right, Kiddos.” Maria agrees.

“Will you ride with me, Dad?” Frankie asks with a nervous smile.

“Of course, Junior.” Frank smiles back at him.

“That can’t be my niece and nephew I see over there!” Billy calls as he walks over. “They are way too grown up.”

_“Uncle Billy!”_ The kids scramble to give him hugs.

_“Ranger!”_ He smiles at Lisa.

_“Captain!_” He ruffles Frankie’s hair.

“You’re eating lunch with us, right Uncle Billy?” Frankie grins up at him.

_“Of course!”_ Billy agrees.

Nobody sees the short glimpse of sadness in his eyes.

It happens very fast, but, to Lisa, it all feels like slow motion.

Gunshots sound.

_“Get down!”_ Her dad barks.

She sees her mother and father cut down.

Frankie is lying so still, _too still_.

Her dad is crawling toward her mother now.

Lisa looks down and sees blood on her stomach.

She hadn’t even felt the impact.

Something slams into her head and everything fades into the dark.

_"Lisa!"_

_Whispers._

_“What do you mean she’s alive?”_

_They’re whispers._

_“She was shot in the stomach and the fucking head!”_

_“They say the torso wound was through and through, didn’t hit anything important.”_

_“What about the fucking head wound?”_

_“The bullet curved, apparently.”_

_“What are the fucking chances of that?”_

_She fades back into the dark._

_“We can make something of this, Sir.”_

_“Elaborate.”_

_“She can be a good tool of persuasion if her father ever turns his eyes toward our organization.”_

_“It could be good insurance.” The older man muses. “Especially with Project Insight so close to completion.”_

_“Its been over a year, it doesn’t look like this tool is any use.”_

_“Well, we could test the new serum on her?” The younger man offers. “At worst we gain good feedback, at best we have a new asset to shape.”_

_“Might as well get something out of this.” The older man agrees. “Start the trials.”_

“She’s waking up!”

“That’s impossible.” The other voice gasps.

“The serums working.”

“Holy shit! Somebody put her back to sleep!”

_Lisa is in a kitchen, bright and cheery._

_It’s the kitchen from home, she realizes._

_A woman is at the sink, humming as she does the dishes._

_“Mom?” Lisa asks. “Mom, what’s going on?”_

_Her mother turns and, for a moment, Lisa sees a gaping hole where her face should be._

_“Oh, Baby.” Mom sighs with a tear falling down her face. “You’ve got a long path to walk.”_

Lisa wakes up.

For a second, she is blinded by the lights. She blinks her eyes and looks around to see a white room all around her, like a doctor’s office without all the posters about the dangers of smoking while pregnant.

She is naked except for a thin paper gown that does nothing to warm her.

She presses her hand against her forehead, trying to ease the ache where she feels a slight difference in the skin.

_I was shot?_ She thinks. _There were men in the park._

She makes to run a hand through her hair and notice its nearly shaved to her scalp.

“What?” She croaks out. "What's going on?"

A buzzing sound fills the room as the door in the corner opens.

A tall man walks in, his face horribly burned.

He grins.

“Welcome to HYDRA, Sweetheart.”

_My family is dead._ She realizes as a feeling of dread overtakes her.

She learns new depths to pain there, a pain she never thought somebody could feel. She stays covered in blood for a while, even if there are no wounds to see anymore.

She finds herself reciting the mantras they keep spoon-feeding her one day and nearly cries.

She doesn’t, because they’d beat her for showing weakness, but she hides her terror deep inside.

_This is what brainwashing is._ She thinks mournfully. _It won’t be too much longer._

They’ve shown her videos of the chair, she knows they’re rebuilding one there. They’re going to take everything from her, even herself.

That’s when she hears the first shot.

Thirty minutes go by when Bucky _Fucking_ Barnes burst into her “room” to find her propped up against the wall with shaking fists held out.

“If you want to live, Kid, I suggest you follow me out.” He says briskly.

Lisa only hesitates for a second.

She makes sure to pick up a discarded gun in the hallway before following him around the corner.


End file.
